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Mouths of the Entwash
(1), Forodló (2), Tol Marol (3), Tel Pelenas (4), Barad Mircandor (5), Adulynt (6), Barad Tathren (7), Iant Anór (8), Ôthrîw (9), Mistham (10)]] The Mouths of the Entwash (S. "Egen-Onodló) were a mighty inland delta where the two rivers Onodló and Anduin met.The area measured a hundred miles from the splitting of the Entwash to its final inflow and was covered by vast marslands. The Mouths of the Entwash covered over one and a half thousand square miles. As measured along the shortest route the green-winged crow could ﬂy, the river divided onehundred and twenty miles upstream of the Anduin. The southem channel weaved and wound its way for almost two hundred miles through bog, marsh, fen and breckland, continually splitting and rejouting itself. To the east, the Onodló divided Calenardhon and northem Anórien from the Lhaid, the furthest pasturelands of Gondor‘s empire. (Later this land was called Rohan.) A well-travelled trade route, the river connected the granaries, herders and wool merchants of Calenardhon with the Anduin, Gondor‘s main artery. The Entwash rose in the Forest of Fangorn and spilled out across the lush plains east of the Misty Mountains, below Athrad Onodló (S. “Entwade"), the river broadened and slew and could no longer be bridged or forded. Its ﬁnal juncture with the Anduin was a confused delta of myriad streams. Once, in its youth, the river followed a single course; but as the land sunk with the tremors of upheaval at the end of the First Age, it became slower and siltier, building great levees in its lower stretches.Its swollen spring waters cutted through a tilted, limestone block, but not before it carved new paths and inundated the land. Over the centuries it continued to open new channels, sometimes reusing old ones, braiding itself, leaving behind stagnant waters, islets, causeways, reed banks, mud ﬂats, quicksands, bogs, and hidden pools. Yet the Kings valued this line of communication with the northwestern plains. One channel through the maze of waterways remained dredged and safe (or at least relatively so) for the agrarian tradesmen of Calenardhon. Like the Limlaith and the Anduin itself, the Onodlo was patrolled by the Gondorian River Patrol‘s small boats and there were numerous garrisons stationed about to protect the traveller from bandits - as well as to collect the King's tolls and dues. :"Ain't no need to get lost in the marsh; not even in t'Sloagh. Find :yissen a pool of clear water and cut a switch of alder, nobbur more :‘n a handslertgth, stroke it three times then peel its black bark :halfway down, in two strips. mind. When you set him in the water. :‘is bare end'll point north, sure as hosses is hasses." Although there were precious few dwellers within the Ethir itself, a number of small settlements surrounded it. The largest of these was Imardhath (S. “Between Two Provinces“), the Mering Steps. This town was small but busy, situated on a bridge across the Mering Stream (S. “Glanhir"), and dominated by the large stone garrison-house. This was the seat and ofﬁce of the Customs Master of the lower Onodló, a senior official appointed by the governors of Anórien and Calenardhon who was responsible for collecting taxes and pursuing the smugglers who plagued the region. Smuggling, the “Black Trade," had become something of a local tradition. The Customs Master and his garrison, together with the River Patrol, did a fairly good job of keeping order in the civilized lands,despite the widely spread population. Like all lands, these were hit badly by the Plague and few communities survived unscathed.In some cases the loss of life destroyed villages, hamlets and steadings, and handfuls of struggling survivors abandoned their former livelihoods to beg a share of others.So, in the lands north of the Entwash, it was quite possible to walk all day and not see a soul. Law enforcement had lapsed in the aftermath of the depopulating Plague. and many who were denied the ability to work the land tumed to banditry. Outlaws ﬂourished, but in the years since, most either gave up the hard life, or got captured and punished. Only a few doughty bands survived, raiding merchants and farms, stealing sheep and rustling cattle or horses, and conducting a little "black" trade themselves. Towns and Villages: There were two outposts in the Ethir Onodló: a garrison at Fen's Edge (S, “Ôthrîw") and a tower known as Mircandor's Tower (S. “Barad Micandor"). These units were supported by the River Patrol, which was stationed at Twyferry (S. “Adulynt”). The River Patrol included marines, pilots and the crews of the two dredger boats, men who kept the Tumlamennen (S. “Delved Waterway") clear ofsilt and weed. All were under the command of three Captains stationed at Twyferry, a trio with whom the Customs Master frequently confered. :"You‘m beware a'them things as lurk in the marsh. They b'ain'l be :nat’ral, full a'thaI old, bad magic—1'is all witchery. Never look at :silver. nor at _y'own ‘ﬂection in the water. that's what I say." The main waters of the Ethir Onodló were as follows. After Twyferry, the river divided and the branch to the north was called the Formennen (S. “North Channel“). It skinned the north edge of the Mêdhnannin (S. “Wet-vale- waters"), the so-called Midden, a marshy swamp formed where the Enedhir (S. “Middle Stream") broke away from the southernmost channel, by common consent thought to be the Onodló proper. The Enedhir took the Tumlamennen through the centre of the delta and past Mircandor's Tower to the beginning of the Siriath Lain (S. “Threaded Waters"). This network of islands and waterways confused the Enedhir and so the Tumlamennen took a major channel to rejoin the Onodló. This general area, before the slight rise of a limestone ridge, was a huge mire, and about the most unpleasant region hereabouts. The first settlers from Gondor called it Coll-fuin (S. “The Sink of Gloom") and its most common name was the Slough, though it was also referred to as Gloaminghollow, Gloaminghole and Darklemere. North of the Formennen, the Slough was more open and less dank, but a place of danger nonetheless: Aelin-Lhyg (S. “Snakesmere") well deserved its name. Its pools writhed with an abundance of reptilian life, creatures which fed on the delta’s many frogs and toads. :“When I were just u lad. the year ‘fore I got hitched, that were forty :year ago, old Gestir landed his nets one evenin' and said as how :summat had got caught in ‘em. There’ d been a grearthrashing about :and a splashing, so he said, then he’d put in with his spear and all :of a sudden it stopped, an’ he lost his spear. So he shows us his nets, :and there in his boat, little skiffle had, with blue painted paddles, :there was his nets squirming with eels and under them this black :shape. Huge, with legs pokin' out like a girt big frogget or toad. So :he pulls the nets off it, us giving him a hand, and it had this horrible :head, nasty wide lips and teeth -- oh, its teeth were like strips of :hriar, all knobbly and spiked. And it had two saucers for eyes, :bigger'n my hands. Only one was allput out and oozing, see, cause :Gestir‘s spear had gone just by accident into its head and killed it :stone dead. Mind you, there's many others lost in the Midden, I can :tell you." However, not all the land between the rivers was marsh. The narrow tongue between the Onodló and Formennen was called Tol Marol, a sandy place where the ﬂooding river deposited its heaviest silt. And there was rough moorland pasture between the Midden and the Slough, overlooked by the Lonely Middle Hill (S. “Amon Erened") and claimed by the herders of Thariol, a tiny village also known as Overwash. A number of tributaries emptied into the southern ﬂanks of the delta, and the most notable of these cool torrents was the Mering Stream. This rose in a cleft of the White Mountains (S. “Ered Nimrais") hidden deep within the Wood of Awe (S. “Taur-nan-Anwar;" later called the Firien Wood or “Aron Ered“). Beyond the wood it spread into the Mering Marsh (S. “Loeg Glanhir;" also called the Silent Marsh or “Loeg Din"). Into the lower delta flew the Sunnet (S. “Orennir”), bridged at Sunbridge (S. “Iant Anór"). Here, as everywhere in the Ethir, the wetlands were rich in color, smell, and sound — signs of vibrant, albeit often unseen, life. :“But you don't want to let those midges and ﬂitehes get ta you my :love. Look, if you're bothered by them pesky little blood-biters, :come buzzing round you in the evening, just you ﬁnd some old bell-'' :''rushes — mind out there's not a ﬂower on their plump brown heads :—and drip a bilo' wax or oil on them then set ‘em alight. Won’! :smell much to you, but iI'lI keep them skeeters away." :"Some say there's a castle in the Slough where a good lady lives and :protects all those who ga astray, with a ﬂack of pied swans to lead :them home. So it goes, she came here la dwell in a lovely, distant :spot, away from the shame of Men, like the Elves in all the old tales. :But there's another story — of an evil sorceress who never ages. :living in a castle made from the skulls of poor, drowned ﬁshermen. :So if you see a lady all dressed in white upon a white horse, with long :fair hair and a silver bridle, do be sure to come back and tell us the :truth ofit." Settlements: Adulynt Barad Mircandor Barad Tathren Forodló Mistham Ôthrîw Tel Pelenas Thariol Tillais Tol Britha References: *MERP:Mouths of the Entwash Category:Region Category:Rohan